Benue South Election Rerun: APC’s Onjeh Heads To Tribunal

Benue South Election Rerun: APC’s Onjeh Heads To Tribunal

Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the just concluded Saturday, February 20, 2016, Benue South Senatorial rerun election, Daniel Onjeh, has Revealed that he will approach the Election Tribunal to challenge the outcome of the election.

Declaring the results of the rerun at 5.51am on Sunday, the Senatorial Returning Officer, Ishaq Eneji, said the former Senate President garnered 84,192 votes, leaving a margin of 12,571 between him and Mr. Onjeh of the APC who scored 71,621 votes.

“Having satisfied the requirement of the law, David Bonaventure is hereby declared the winner, Mr. Eneji announced.

Not satisfied by the announcement, Mr. Onjeh maintained that would seek the nullification of the victory of Senator Mark on the grounds of over voting and ballot box stuffing.

Recall Mr. Mark won the March 28, 2015 senatorial election in the Southern part of the state, but his election was later nullified by the Appeal Court, which led to the rerun election on Saturday.

Howbeit, the APC candidate, Mr. Onjeh, accused the PDP of buying the conscience of the voters with a 1,000 Naira per vote cast in Ado Local Government, thereby compromising the integrity of the poll.

He furthered that there where over 21,000 votes that were cancelled, stressing that the rerun election should have been declared Inconclusive due to this cause, making reference to the Kogi State election where the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the governorship election inconclusive on the grounds that the number of cancelled votes far exceeded the margin with which one party was leading.

Meanwhile, winner of the Benue South Senatorial rerun election, Senator David Mark, has called on the APC candidate, Daniel Onjeh and other aggrieved persons, to see his victory as the ‘reflection’ of the People’s will.